DR - How is not that important, doing it is what makes the difference.

Allyson - The hills won't kill you. But will make you wish they had. No just kidding, its tough but if you ease into it you will be fine. Congrats on the strong finish of the 20.

kcpiper- That route sounds awesome.

me - Friday and Saturday the plan called for back to back 10milers @ easy. On Friday with ALL the humidity it felt like torture. I got somewhat dehydrated, had issues with the Garmin too. Today without the humidity it felt it should, easy.

Morning! I have 8 miles tonight. I finished my doubles yesterday with a super fast 7.

Freckles, nice 20.

Darth, I have an idea but until tomorrow's 20 with 10 @ MP I am not sure whether it's a go. I gotta say my easy runs have gone down to 10:45mm and my GMP is 45 seconds faster than that so I'm not sure if the goal is too slow now but I won't try anything faster. We'll see tomorrow. If I can do the 10mm in 90F (which will be the heat index tomorrow by 6am), I think it's doable.

New to the turtle room just wanted to say hello to all enjoyed read everyone training. I'm also training for my first on November 17th and I have 1/2 tmrw to see how my training has gone so far. Enjoy the weekend and your long runs everyone.

julxx ... That was a great story with you and your son congrats to him

allyson, way to go on the strong 20. you've inspired me to try a fruit packet... sounds fresher and definitely less chemical-y!

thekc - hope the 18 went well.

run for 1 - welcome!

me - nice and easy 12 for my cutback weekend run. felt good. now getting mentally geared up for 20 this weekend. my first 20 ever! i am excited to break into a double digit number that starts with "2"!

Had a great 18 miler today @ 10:50 pace. The lake run was beautiful and the sunrise was awesome! As I was coming around the lake the sun was reflecting off the water... very surreal. It was a lot better than last weeks blow up. Started out at 58F. It's amazing what a low temperature can do! Water consumption was ideal, used less than half of my camelbak reservoir. Most of my training runs have been during 75F+ with high dew points. I still have the issue with leg strength though. Ran the run and averaged 65% HRR but probably close to 100% effort in terms of leg turnover. When my leg strength catches up with my endurance that'll be a great moment. Hope everyone's weekend runs went well!

Happy Sunday, Turtles! Catching up after not getting here most of last week. This working for a living thing is way overrated.

Julxx - Great race for your son! Good for him pulling it together for the last 4 miles, and scoring an AG place for the effort! Hope the RnR is fun. Or was, I guess it's probably over by now.

kcpiper - Glad the 18 went so well! Weather can make such a huge difference.

Run for 1 - Welcome! How did the half go today? Where is your marathon?

Rainy - The first 20 ever is exciting! Tiring...but exciting!

Allyson - Interesting idea using the kid's smushed fruit pouches. They certainly would taste better! Hope you had fun at the wedding.

Tracy - Happy "plan starting" week! I'd wouldn't worry too much about speed as you build up the mileage. Just maybe on your midweek medium long run, put in some miles at hmp. Pfitz peaks at 12 miles with 7 at hmp. I'll probably peak at 10 miles with 6 at hmp.

Me - Had a pretty good running week. 39 miles, which is my highest since May. Finally feel like I'm really in marathon training. Plus on Friday I passed 1,000 miles for the year, which is a fun milestone! Yesterday, the whole family did a 5k. I paced my 11-year-old daughter and she dropped her pr from 32:xx to 28:20! Then yesterday afternoon I went out and did my scheduled 14-miler. So 17 miles on the day, which might not have a been a great idea. But I love having Sunday morning with the weekend's long run already taken care of.

@murphyO haven't run a marathon yet November 17th will be my first and as for today race hear it is enjoy.

RR

Saturday 3 pm headed into Cambridge to drop off my son at the sister in laws and proceeded to head to Suffolk Downs to get an eye on the course and to make sure I new my way at 5:30am Sunday Morning. look nice and flat along the coast only minor hill no biggie. Went back and to my son out for post race dinner that consisted of 2 slices of pizza and a ham and cheese sub. Night time fell and headed to bed around 10:30pm couldn't sleep tossed and turned , fell asleep only to wake up at 2:30 am grrrr nope not time to get up finally fell asleep again.

Woke up and head out the door at 5:30 am to a beautiful crisp 52f just perfect. got to the race 1hr early watch the place fill upp took some pics and headed to the 1:50 pace group.heard from Frank Shorter and Bill Rodgers showed up 2 min. before the gun sounded lol classic.

Gun goes off and I'm on the move dodging people and making sure I don't trip and fall. hit the first mile at 7:21 and I'm like holy **** did I go out to fast! so I try to back off the gas mile 2 hits and bang 7:27 wooo slow down I'm thinking mile 3 hits 7:27 and I'm starting to think screw it I have trained my ass off so lets go for it and keep it all under 8 min. if I can and if I blow up I will no my training sucked lol

Mile 4 - 7 :42

mile 5- 7:46

mile 6-7:55

mile 7-7:38

mile 8-7:46

mile 9-7:37

mile 10-7:32

mile 11-7:44

mile12-7:45

mile13-7:29

Ended up with official time of 1:40.52 PR by 12 min. so I'm thrilled it all worked out. also beat and met Bill Rodgers shook hands took a photo he said he ended up with 1:50 and Frank ended up at 2:09.

So a great day and finished it up by climbing blue hills UGH for my son lol my legs are shot now.

DR- If I could do that run in that weather, I'd sure be speeding up my goal pace (if we get good weather race day). I know I'm looking at a huge PR even if I blow up. The way my runs have been going on the remotely coolish days I'm thinking of a pace fast enough that I know it will sound foolish if I even write it down here.

Runfor1 - WOW! Congratulations on a great race and a huge pr!!! Great consistency and you even had something left at the end to make mile 13 your fastest since your first 3! Awesome. btw, I saw that your first marathon isn't until Nov, I was just asking where it is. And on the basis of today are you re-estimating your pacing for it?

Me - 4 easy recovery miles with a girlfriend I hadn't chatted with in a while, so a lovely run.

MurphyO -- a thank you and my bad lol marathon is a local one Myles Standish marathon in Plymouth Ma. South of Boston down towards Cape Cod. It has lots of rolling hills , my goal is still to Finish first and hopefully break the 4hr mark.

Yup I have 19 miler and 3 20milers avg 40tys to 50tys a week it's the HH Inter. 2 with added miles. I already did the novice 1 with no marathon at the end so I went righit to inter.2 to keep my miles up

Busy week for me last week, topped off with a camping trip with the Girl Scouts up in the mountains (which we do have in Arizona!)...it was beautiful and cool and i even was able to sneak in a 5 mile run along winding roads in the woods, nobody around other than the occasional redneck with guns, which always reminds me of home!!! It was awesome!

Me ... ran recovery 4 mile today after yesterday off legs still beat after the 1/2 on Sunday. today I ran In my new Hokas recommended by HG and heres the report

HOKA HOKA HOKA HOKA HOKA HOKA FIRST RUN AND I PROPOSED

HOKA WILL YOU MARRY ME LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They felt amazing I did a 4 mile easy recovery run since my legs a still fried from the 1/2 , but the good news is the Hoka real felt amazing on my feet good stability ,didn't feel any issue with the added height they felt like riding in a Cadillac truly amazing so day 1 in the books tmrw a 9 miler so we will keep close eye on my legs and ITB witch feels normal again . So thanks for now on the Hoka find this could be a long lasting affair : )~ lol

Morning! I did an additional 3 miles with hubby Sunday night, then 9 last night. Nice runs. My grandmother died Sunday night so I've been busy with work and 10000000 calls from family members. We were not close.

tracey - Glad you had a nice weekend with the Girl Scouts and were able to sneak in a run. Sounds like a fun trip!

murphyo - Congratulations on reaching 1000 miles for the year! Congrats to you daughter - a 4 minute PR in a 5k is awesome!

Run For 1 - Wow, you are fast!! Fantastic time. Congratualtions!!!

I ran the Philadelphia Rock n' Roll Half last Sunday. I run this one with a friend of mine every year, this was our 5th time running it together. The weather was beautiful, the start was a bit crowded, but not horrible. We started out a little too fast (8:47 and 8:52 for miles 1 and 2), which was probably a mistake. I felt great until mile 9, but then my legs just started to feel really tired and things got a bit uncomfortable. We walked through the waterstop at mile 10, and I felt a little better after that. The last mile was tough for me. I really wanted to quit or at least start walking. My legs felt heavy and it seemed like I wasn"t moving at all. After the race I checked my Garmin and was very suprised that I ran the last mile in 9:17.To me it felt like 10:30-10:50. I finished in 2:03:53 which is a 3 second PR. I am very happy with that. Since I just did Bird-In-Hand the weekend before in 2:06:40 and my legs were still a bit tired, I thought I would probably finish somewhere around 2:05-2:07. I did a barre sculp class yesterday and rode my husband's stationary bike today. Tomorrow it's back to running!

I also ran the Philly half on Sunday, much more slowly than Julxx. It really was a beautiful day for a run. Monday night I took a real dance class for the first time in years and loved it, so planning to have that be a Monday routine. Lots of races coming up, really enjoying the fall weather for running.

Sorry I have been MIA all week, been really busy with school and work. Long run again this Friday and then another one next week. More than likely going to end up doing about a 2 week taper. 3 weeks just seems like too much of a taper, especially with me running less than 40 miles total a week. Glad to see everyone is improving and doing so well!

Hey everyone! It's been quite awhile since I've logged in here. I got insanely busy with wedding planning that i just didn't get on. I'm now married and back from my honeymoon and back to real life. I ran my first ever 20 miler the day after we got home from vacation. Took me 4:18. The weather couldn't have been nicer and I was really happy with the run. I did have to stop for a walk break around mile 16.5 but I was happy with it. I went solo without music and still did good. Marathon is in less than a month. I'm ready. The training is a lot. I knew that going in, and i've done my training, but i'm ready to not HAVE to run 4-5 nights a week. I feel like a bad runner for saying that, but I've got other things i'd like to focus on!

Hope everyone is well!

3 5k's(PR 30:37)

9 Halfs (PR 2:15)

2 Metric Marathons(approx 16.28 )mile race (3:03)

Marathon - 10/12/2013 Baltimore, MD 26.51 miles 6:12

Baby girl born 6/23/14.. Starting to run again after an 11 month running hiatus.

XC -Congratulations!!! Yey!!! So happy for you! We were thinking of you on the message board!!! And you got the 20 miler done, so many good things happening for you!!! Hope the wedding was beautiful, I'm sure it was!!!

DR-Sorry about your grandma! Hope things are settling down for you!

Juluxx-Congratulations on the great PR!!! That is hard to do just after another race!!!!

Allyson-Great job on the runs! I don't know about the 3 week taper , i'm not there yet but I do know that is what Higdon recommends, i've heard yey and nay on both sides...maybe others more experienced could chime in.

Me-did a great run yesterday and today, got up at 4:30 AM, so i'm very very happy about that. Had every excuse to put it off until later but always better to get it done so i'm very excited. LR tomorrow (for me only up to 13 not at the "official" long running yet) but will be hitting a new weekly mileage high for me this week at 38. I know it's low but these are all new milestones for me.

traceyp07 -- great job on the 38 mile high week and ur getting in to the meat of HH ,I used his programs for the 1/2 and then did the novice 1 with no marathon at the end so I went into his inter.2 to keep the miles up to 40 to 50. I really like the HH programs he is a very wise man.

Me ... I ran 9.7 at 5 am and it was brrrrrr 40ty out so I had to break out the warm clothes its to early for the cold boooo. good running everyone

Hi, guys. Busy at work. Did my 9 miles on Monday night and they were really well. All stress went away. 9 miles yesterday with 2 easy, 2 @ HMP, 1 easy, 2 @ HMP to 10K, 2 easy. Very tough but confidence-building workout. Today, I took an SRD but ended up running 3 with hubby. His comeback is going well.

Allyson - I call my taper 3 weeks, but really the weekday mileage of the first week of taper is pretty similar to the week before, but the long run drops from 20 to 12. Then the last 2 weeks, the mid-week mileage drops off more significantly, so it really is, in effect, a 2 week taper. I think you're right that especially with a low mileage program, 3 full weeks may be a little too much.

run for 1 - So, I'm not sure, do you like the Hokas? And 40 degrees?! I like that for running, once I warm up, but I am sooooo not ready for it yet. Luckily it will be a while before we see 4 as a leading digit here.

Julxx - Way to rock the pr when you didn't even feel like that's what you were doing! And right after BIH also!

Tracy - A weekend camping with the girl scouts makes a sneak out for a run almost necessary.

Me - Work is sucking every bit of midweek energy I have. Got in a grand total of 4 miles in the past 3 days. But I console myself with the fact that I still have 39 miles in the last 7 days. I'm just worried that this 4 days heavy/3 days light routine I am of necessity falling into is going to lead to injury as the training wears on. Oh well. We do what we can do. And try to realize how lucky we are to be running at all.

murphyO lol I do I do I do weeeee. Amazing shoe now on to the horror of today.

me 19 miler deaths march starting at mile 13 run walk run walk run walk walk walk last 3 miles. I guess I shouldn't have gone out last night. And I should have taken yesterday off like I was suppose to but I ran 9 and today I should have rest but did the 19 because ran tmrw UGH that was my first march to hell and hopefully my last I will never for get that experience thank god it was in training and not my first marathon.

Running for a living, that sounds like it would be great, bu i don't think I would enjoy it as much!!!!

DR-Happy Belated Birthday!!! Hope it was fun!!!

Run for 1-we all have bad days like that but you live and learn.....and just be glad it was in training!!!

MurphyO-Your message was spot on!! I was grumbling yesterday about my early monrings...then i read your post and you are right, we are so dang lucky to be running at all. Thanks for reminding me!

today i got in a 6.5 miler, shorter run tomorrow....my Long runs are on thursdays now as i'm off and it works better for the family stuff. just too much going on in the weekends...and we only have 1 kid!!! tonight's low of 67-are you kidding me!!! Very stoked!!!

murphyO, i also try to remind myself i'm lucky to be out there running - in fact i have a certain section of a familiar run i that triggers me to remember to think "grateful" - even when i don't necessarily feel it.

DR, happy birthday!

runfor1, way to gut out a tough run. there's a lot to be gained from doing that.

tracey, isn't it crazy how kid stuff can suck up the whole weekend? i'm interested in your thursday-as-LR day.

for me: my one and only 20 miler is up tomorrow. i'm nervous and excited and ready to go. sending all best wishes for you and your LRs this weekend!

While I still have a month before my 'official' marathon training (HH Novice) begins, I'm running steadily 2 times during the week, approx 3.6 - 4 miles, longer runs on Saturday and Sunday. Once I start the training, I'll follow the 3 runs during the week, long run on Saturday and figure out a cross training routine for Sundays.

I do have a concern lately and wonder if anyone here may have tips. I'm worried I'm noticing some symptoms of plantar fasciitis. A few months ago, I noticed when waking in the morning, pain in my heel, mostly on the right foot. I thought I may have slept on my foot or maybe the shoes I'm wearing at work are causing issues(flats). While talking to 2 different runners, they said that was the first sign of plantar fasciitis before getting official diagnosis from doctors.

It's been happening more and more often...okay, every morning. But...once I move around a bit, it's fine and it doesn't hurt when I run!

Has anyone here had this and, if so, how did you address it? I truly don't want to not run for any length of time...this was one comment from one of the runners. He took off 2 months. Gulp!

Brand new poster, here, and after looking at other forums where runners talk about 8 minute miles, it looks like I have found "my people" right here.

I graduated from C25k last October, and after hearing about the Boston Marathon bombings, I was inspired to train for my first marathon. I also turned 40 this year, and prior to C25k, I was a true couch potato, so this is all very new for me.

I just completed my third and final 20 mile long run in 4:29. My marathon is in two weeks. I'm scared to death. I don't know if I'm tapering properly, or if I've trained enough or anything. All the online training programs talk about how you shouldn't even think about beginning a marathon training program until you've A.) been running for at least a year (hah!, for me it was more like six months) B.) have a base mileage of at least 30 miles (I didn't reach that until this summer during training) and C.) run 4-5 days a week (the first time I went beyond 3 days a week, I got injured. I really need those rest days).

In today's run, I did okay from an endurance point of view, although my major leg muscles stiffened up a bit and I had to try to keep my head up and not "shuffle". My biggest issue is that after mile 16, my feet and toes are terribly sore. I use a larger shoe size, I tried taping and toe caps. The only thing slowing me down at the end is sheer foot/toe pain--I suppose it's the kind you get if you've been running for over four hours and I'll just need to push through it. My projected finish time is between 5.5 and 6 hours.

Any advice you having for getting through the next two weeks without freaking out or chickening out would be appreciated. Thanks for listening.

Tracyp07 ...thanks and yes thank god it was in training lol I did lots of reading on the BONK last night. Enjoy ur run and the nice temps and yes we are blessed to be able to run even though sometimes we BONK lol

RDR 2323... It was a tough lesson to be learned but I hope this will teach me a few lessons. Good luck on ur 20 miler u will do GREAT!!!

me.. Rest and ear carbs all day and most of all go to my sons first swimming meet wooooohoooo go KingFish

murphy - Great thoughts about the privilege to whine about running kicking our butts.

run for 1 - Its harder to stay with a run like that than it is to bag it. And it sure proves your mental toughness beyond and doubt. And on race day to keep going when the miles pile on its just as tough mentally as it is physically.

tracey - Lower temps after the summer are great!

rainy - I hope the 20 miler went great.

river - Welcome. No info on plantar fasciitis.

yahasscience - Welcome. This is a great place for pre-race jitters.

Whatever you do you need to know that you are through the tough part. As i like to say to people that don't run, the training is 5 months the race 5 hours, what's tougher? Since this is your first marathon its more important to get a positive experience out of it. So i would suggest that you try to take walk breaks during the race. You said it yourself that you are doing too much too soon. And all that numbness and soreness is not going to help you get to the finish line. In the next two weeks you are going to over think every aspect of the training and race. Its normal, and expected. Also its normal to start checking the weather forecast a week in advance. Try not to worry too much. You did the training, and now all you need to do is stay healthy until race day.

me - I did my LR on Friday. 16miles or 16.3 actually because the metric numbers on my Garmin did not fascinate me. 16M = 25.7km so i added 0.5 to make it 26.2kms, for entirely imagined mental benefits.

All that took just shy of 3 hours but my best splits came in the last 6.2 kms which is a really good thing.

Then Saturday was SRD which started with a night out with friends that took a lot out of the rest but i was better off for it.

And today i did a 10k race. The 3rd Chalandri Race.

A great day for running with the temp around 68f. No noticeable humidity and a light breeze. The race started at 9:05 and went through the Chalandri ravine, with its creek and lush greenery was a perfect venue. Using Pete's Gambit (aka walking the aid stations) I covered the 10kms at 53:39 which is a course record for me. I had a pain on my diaphragm for the first 4 or 5km but then i managed to breath easier and went for it. Kms 9 and 10 were both under 5m/k or 8m/M. The race used pacers. The Greek nickname for a pacer is hare. I passed the 55minute hare at 8.84kms and never looked back.